Jul 2 2022
By:
David Henderson
While attending a vaccine center in Washington, D.C. last week, where Covid vaccines were being given to kids between the ages of 6 months and 5 years, President Biden stated: We're the only country in the world doing this right now. This is a great day for you all. Thanks for the example you are setting. He was obvi...
Jul 1 2022
By:
Scott Sumner
Over at The Hill, I have a new piece discussing the risk of recession. Here is the fundamental problem that we face: If the Fed’s contractionary monetary policy does succeed in reducing nominal GDP growth to roughly 4 percent, one of two things might happen. The best outcome would be for wage growth to slow shar...
Jul 1 2022
By:
David Henderson
If you, unlike Michigan Democratic senator Debbie Stabenow, have bought gasoline lately, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen a sticker on the gas pump with a picture of President Biden saying, “I did that.” Typically, those stickers are placed by customers, not gas station owners, and for that reason...
Jul 1 2022
By:
Pierre Lemieux
The reaction of a French voter to the good showing of the party of extreme-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon against the “centrist” president Emmanuel Macron’s party in the legislative election illustrates how some people have an angelic view of government. The Wall Street Journal reported (“France’s Macron Lost Grip ...
Jun 30 2022
By:
David Henderson
Kevin Corcoran, a regular reader of EconLog posts and a frequent commenter, sent me some interesting thoughts that are worth presenting here. I've made some slight edits, with Kevin's consent. I'll add my own example at the end. Here's Kevin: I had a thought recently on how the underlying idea of subjectivity of va...
Jun 30 2022
By:
David Henderson
His [Steven Koonin's] book is full of important, factual information and insights. One of his main messages is that there is much more uncertainty about where the climate is headed than many climate scientists and even a higher percentage of people in the media are willing to admit. And the good news is that the long-t...
Jun 30 2022
By:
Pierre Lemieux
The governor of Maine's letter accompanying the $850 "relief checks" sent to taxpayers contains interesting statements: "This money comes from the record surplus that State government recorded this year. My Administration and Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in the Legislature agreed that, in the face of [th...
Read this Pierre Lemieux Liberty Classic
Jun 4 2018
By Pierre Lemieux
When the dust settles, Anthony de Jasay's The State1 will probably be recognized as one of the great books of the 20th century. It may be the most serious and subversive challenge to state authority ever written. That this book is not banned must be proof that we are not living under real tyranny or at least under int...
Jun 29 2022
By:
Scott Sumner
Last week, I visited Venice, a neighborhood in LA that is full of wealthy tech entrepreneurs and homeless people. While strolling along one of the canals, I noticed a sign, "Stop the Monster". This led me to google the phrase in order to learn more about the issue. The monster is a proposed 140 housing project tha...
Jun 29 2022
By:
Nathan Goodman
My friend Yusuf and I recently started a Substack called Longterm Liberalism, which aims to bring together insights from classical liberalism and Effective Altruism. Yusuf has two posts up that introduce the blog. One covers the motivation for starting the blog, while the other discusses our principles. He also recentl...
Jun 28 2022
By:
Scott Sumner
Pollsters ask the public all sorts of questions about their political beliefs. But what does the public actually believe? Is there any reason to assume that people are responding truthfully to the questions asked by pollsters?That may seem like an odd question. Why would people lie to pollsters? I'm not sure, but there...
Jun 28 2022
By:
David Henderson
One of my biggest disappointments with blogs (and don't get me started on Twitter, which is way worse) is that many of the people who comment on posts don't engage with the author's argument. I'm not applying this objection to commenters on EconLog because I think that, by and large, they (you) do better than commenter...
Jun 27 2022
By:
Scott Sumner
South Dakota put abortion bans on the ballot several times, and each time the initiative was soundly rejected by voters: In 2006, lawmakers passed a bill banning almost all abortions, which Gov. Mike Rounds signed. It set off a brutal campaign that became the dominant issue in a busy election year that featured a g...
Jun 26 2022
By:
Scott Sumner
People often suggest that a fast growing economy is inflationary. I would argue that exactly the opposite is true. Consider this data for Venezuela and Singapore from an old Robert Barro textbook: Venezuela (1950-90): Average RGDP growth = 4.4% Average inflation = 8.0% Singapore (1963-89): Average RGDP...
Jun 25 2022
By:
Pierre Lemieux
A widespread belief is that the political system must be responsive to voters’ demands. But this is not obvious at all. Consider the following statement in the Wall Street Journal’s report on the adoption of a gun control bill by Congress (“House Expected to Approve Landmark Gun Legislation,” June 24, 2022): T...
Jun 25 2022
By:
Michelle Bernier
Corporate law as a subject has significantly changed in recent years. These changes have led to an exhaustive review of the systems, procedures, and standards of corporate stability, governance, control, and democracy as elements of analysis and starting points for generating modern responses to the various challenges ...